Sex in space is going to be way different than it is on Earth

NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency have consistently and
aggressively denied that any astronaut has had sex in space on
the International Space Station (ISS).

So it seems that no one, yet, is part of the "250-mile-high
club."

PornHub, the internet's largest pornography website, wants to
change that.

PornHub made headlines in June 2015 when it
announced its plans to be the first company to shoot a
sex tape in space. It even launched an Indiegogo
campaign to raise the $3.4 million it estimates the film
will cost to produce.

The company wants to film its stars having
sex during the few minutes that the spaceship will
be in zero gravity as it reaches its maximum height over Earth.
(No word yet on what spaceship they'll be using for the film
yet).

There's one glaring problem here: We know
almost nothing about the science of sex in space and
the potential risks and problems that could arise.

There are some biologists, astronomers, and anthropologists who
have spent time speculating about what sex in space will be like.
We can't be 100% sure of anything since we have
little research and zero data, but it's clear sex
in space won't be anything like sex on Earth.

The zero gravity problem

It's not something most of us spend any time thinking about,
but gravity is pretty critical for sex.

Getting it on in a zero g environment might
sound kind of hot (PornHub certainly seems to think so), but
most experts who have spent time thinking through
the logistics have a different opinion.

"One of the things that gravity helps us do is stay
together, so sex in microgravity might actually be more difficult
because you’re going to have to make sure that you’re always
holding each other so you don’t drift apart," Paul
Wolpe, a senior bioethicist at NASA, told
VICE. "It might be a lot more challenging and a lot
less fulfilling than most people think."

Scientists float in zero
gravityAP

Chris Impey, an astronomy professor at the University of
Arizona, takes this idea even further.

Then we have to consider how zero gravity affects the
actual human body, not just its motion.

The human body — blood vessels, muscles, everything — is designed
to deal with the pull of gravity. Blood doesn't flow through
the body very well in zero-g. That means men could
have a difficult time getting and keeping an
erection.

Another natural turn off is that people sweat way more
in space. It builds up in layers and clings to the body
because there's no gravity to make it drip off. That could make
intimacy a lot less pleasant, Impey points out.

There have only been a handful of these kinds of studies
though. Clearly we need a lot more research.

Psychological complications

When a small group of people are confined to a small space for
months, as they would be on a journey to Mars or beyond, it's
hard to keep the peace. If two of those people were having sex,
there's no telling how it might affect the group dynamic.

"Now that brings other problems: not all relationships
last," astronaut Ron Garan told VICE.
"Imagine a breakup on a three-year mission to Mars."

NASA has a strict policy that no couples can be on board
the ISS at the same time. (Even though it
happened by mistake one time).

Sex on Mars

Gravity on Mars is about 40% of Earth's, so sex on Mars
will be less complicated than sex in zero
g.

Physically having sex may be easier but there are other
complications with intimacy and procreation on an alien world.
Impey has a great summary of the some of the biggest problems in
his book "Beyond:
Our Future in Space:"

The 40% gravity would require minor adjustments. To
finesse the issue of procreation, if not coupling, all-male or
all-female crews have been proposed. More controversially,
voluntary sterilization has been suggested for the first
colonists. Mars One plans to arm its colonists with
contraceptives, but it’s not known how well they would work on
Mars. Norbert Kraft, the medical director of the project, isn’t
entirely reassuring when he says they will "make colonists
aware of the risks associated with having sex." The first waves
of Mars colonists will die there, and they know that the
medical facilities will be rudimentary; they’re unlikely to
want babies. But as colonies get established, the dictates of
biology and human culture will prevail.

We'd also need to have a huge number of colonizers to
ensure there's a healthy amount of genetic variability. If
Elon Musk gets his way then we'll have
a million people on Mars, which should do the
trick.

Artist's
conception of what the Mars One colony would look like.Mars One

While we're still a long way away from seeing births on
Mars, space travel and exploration is progressing, and eventually
these are problems that we'll have to solve if we want
to become a multi-planetary species.

So how do we move forward? NASA seems a little prudish about the
subject — it's published very little information about sex in
space and most of its communication effort on the topic has gone
toward squashing all rumors that any astronauts have done it.

In some ways that makes sense — there are still tons of other,
more pressing health issues we need to figure out about living in
space. So sex research is not a
priority for any space agency right now.
But it's a subject that needs a lot more attention
and open conversation.

"I'd just assume [sex in space] is going to be an
adventure, and people will be creative and they'll find new ways
to enjoy themselves," Impey said.